my country's Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Trade and Industry Yan Jinyong delivered the above speech at the groundbreaking ceremony of the new factory at Collins Aerospace on Tuesday (July 15).

In the era of rapid development of artificial intelligence, automation and robotics, Singapore is not only participating in competition at low prices, but building differentiated competitive advantages with quality, innovation, reliability and long-term value to maintain Singapore's competitiveness as an advanced manufacturing center.

Collins Aerospace, a subsidiary of American aerospace giant RTX (formerly Raytheon Technology), spent $250 million (about S$320 million) to relocate its Singapore factory from Bedok to the Serita Aviation Park to expand its advanced manufacturing and maintenance, repair and renovation (MRO) capabilities.

Yan Jinyong said that Singapore is committed to building a strong industrial ecosystem, integrating R&D, advanced manufacturing and technical talents, and supporting global companies like Collins to build world-class facilities in Singapore.

Compared with the existing factory, the new factory will adopt a new production process with Flexible Manufacturing System (FMS), and with the help of Industry 4.0 technology such as advanced automation and sensors, parts can be processed on multiple variable lines. This will not only improve factory efficiency and productivity, but will also make the production line more resilient.

Yan Jinyong said that this important moment opened a new chapter in the cooperation relationship between RTX and Collins and Singapore, marking the official start of construction of Collins' new generation of advanced manufacturing facilities.

He said that in order to better deal with the increasingly uncertain, turbulent and even chaotic global environment, Singapore also hopes to cooperate with enterprises to strengthen supply chain resilience. Through this kind of mutually beneficial cooperation, we can create high-quality employment opportunities and development space for the people.